Isaiah 40:1-11 and Mark 1:1-8 - What are we waiting for?

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Advent is a time of hope and expectation for the church; a time when we look forward to the incarnation of Christ, celebrated at Christmas. But Advent also looks forward toward the 2nd Advent of Christ. Advent is the ultimate period of time in which, collectively, the church begins to wait, and see.

But what are we waiting for? Advent can be reduced to simply a prep time for waiting for the birth of Jesus to the exclusion of its expectation of the 2nd Advent of Christ. That is certainly the dominant message that gets proclaimed at Advent – Jesus is coming! But are we really waiting? Do we really want something to happen? Do we really want the something different that Advent promises us? This is the challenge of Sunday’s lectionary readings from Isaiah 40 and Mark 1.

As chapter Isaiah 40 begins, Israel has experienced the tragedy of massive defeat, endured the agony of exile in Babylon, and suffered the unthinkable – God has let the people, and even God’s own house, be destroyed. And so during the time between Isaiah 39 and 40, Israel experienced a period of divine silence.

Divine silence is hard to deal with. We know God is out there, we know God is ruling and is continuing to be sovereign and work out God’s plan. What we don’t know, when faced with divine silence, is whether or not God continues to care for and love us as God’s people, especially when God is silent while we experience severe hardship and pain, as Israel experienced the degradation of their religion, holy places, faith community, and way of life.

Finally, at long last, a message came from God – Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God... At long last, our captivity is over and God is going to act. Isaiah describes a time when God will restore the people and reveal God’s glory, but first the way must be prepared. This preparation will be like a road carved out of the wilderness…valleys will be filled in, mountains will be brought down…the very earth will be leveled so that God’s restoration will have a way and God’s glory can come forth. And so Isaiah was to preach that though life is impermanent and fleeting, God’s word is permanent, and will last forever. God will come and restore the people. God will be a great and mighty warrior to rescue the people, but will treat them like a shepherd tends to his flock; God will act like a mother sheep, leading her children to safety. Isaiah 40 ends in expectant hope.

Our passage from Mark 1 combines Malachi 3 and Isaiah 40 to tell us that John is the one the prophets spoke of, that John is the one who is going to prepare the way and proclaim the salvation of God. And so we read that “John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins,” and that Jesus is coming.

I have been guilty of making the anticipated mystery of God a wholly spiritual one. I have been guilty of making Jesus’ message and the message of the New Testament simply and exclusively about redemption from sin. But we mustn’t forget that the comfort of Isaiah 40, in fact the anticipation of the coming of the Messiah throughout the Old Testament, was not primarily about salvation from sin, but about salvation from oppression and injustice. The people longed for a day when the evil forces of this world would be defeated. Salvation would be from the systemic evil of the world expressed in evil empires and tyrants, from one class of society oppressing another, from one group of people going hungry while another ate their fill, from systems that are designed to keep one group poor so that another can get rich. Yes salvation was for the forgiveness of sins, but it is not limited to that…the anticipated salvation from God was for a new world order to begin. And onto this expectant scene for a new world order marches the voice crying out in the wilderness saying the kingdom is coming, the new manifestation of God’s reign is coming – and the way to prepare for it is to repent.

Advent is not just about waiting for Jesus so we can have our sins forgiven. Advent has always been about waiting for God to act redemptively in the world to bring shalom, or peace, or health, or wholeness to it. Peace between us and God; peace or shalom between us; and there can be no peace or shalom until there is equity and justice – until there is reconciliation. We are waiting for the very manifestation of God’s reign that the people of Israel in Egypt and the captive Jews in Babylon were waiting for. We are waiting for the manifestation of the very kingdom of God that the 1st century Jews and Christians were waiting for.

The people of God, on both sides of the cross, have always been looking for God to move and act redemptively in the world. I think this is why John’s message was a message of repentance. John tells us that repentance is primarily a relational event. Repentance is a way to restore relationships with other people and repentance is a way to be reconciled or restored to God. This message is brought out best in Luke 3, which contains a fuller version of John’s preaching and call to repentance in anticipation of the coming salvation of the Lord.

Repentance is acting out the new kind of life made possible by the redemptive act of God. Repentance is living out the life of the kingdom that we are waiting for. Repentance is about turning around and actively working against the forces of evil that seek to build barriers between people and between people and God. It is about restoring equity and justice in our relationships with other people. And it is about recognizing when we are participating in systems of injustice and inequity and seeking to right that wrong. Repentance is about acting now in a way that honors the one who is coming who will act finally and redemptively at the end to bring about final and complete shalom, to and for all people. And if Isaiah and John are to be believed, when the people of God repent in preparation for the coming redemptive action of God, a new world is born.

Sunday was the 2nd Sunday of Advent. Originally, Advent was a time of penitence and fasting, much as the Season of Lent. But in recent times, the penitential nature of Advent has been replaced with a more positive message of hope and anticipation. However, the readings for the 2nd Sunday in Advent put the two together. They proclaim to us a message of comfort that salvation is coming, but call on us to repent because salvation is coming.

The challenge of Advent is to see that God is always a God of Advent. God is always doing something new. God is always working to bring peace and reconciliation. This is who God is. Our task is to look for those places where God is working; and I think that we will find some extraordinary things. God works through a baby in a manger in an insignificant town in a tiny country to change the world. God works through the shame of a cross, a death that robs one of dignity and significance in order to bring dignity and significance to the world. Could it also be that God works through a small and seemingly insignificant church to change the world again? I think that is what we are waiting for. May it be so!